Environmental impacts of autonomous vehicles: A review of the scientific literature.

Autonomous vehicles (AVs) may have significant environmental impacts although there are still few studies focusing solely on these effects. A vast majority of articles address environmental issues as a secondary outcome and, above all, emissions are the main topic. As the notion of environmental impacts concerns many aspects than just air pollution, this paper aims to explore and show the findings and flaws of current research with a wider vision. For that purpose, a systematic review of the scientific literature was carried out broadening the scope to land, water, noise, and light pollution in addition to air. The results reveal potential benefits of AVs due to technical improvements, new possibilities in design and traffic flow enhancement, but the benefits depend on penetration levels, shared mobility acceptance and the interaction with other modes of transport. On the other hand, negative effects are also identified related to the decrease in the value of trip time and user tendencies. Among other potential impacts, changes in land use are increasingly being studied. These changes can lead to significative impacts on emissions as well as on soil and water although the latter have not yet been considered. Lastly, the likely improvements in noise and light pollution are scarcely explored. Given the lack of study of some of the environmental outcomes of AVs, it is not possible to draw a precise conclusion on their overall impact, calling for more comprehensive studies that enable to identify all the measures to be taken to achieve a sustainable future.

Behavioural changes in transport and future repercussions of the COVID-19 outbreak in Spain.

COVID-19 (Coronavirus disease 2019) brought about a huge change in the behaviour and mobility of citizens in all parts of the world. This change was mainly a consequence of the strong measures of isolation and social distancing taken by the different governments in most countries through the world. The specific measures adopted in each country, in combination with the particular characteristics of the spread of the virus, generated differentiated, although similar, behavioural changes. This article presents the analysis of a survey carried out in Spain in March 2020, where citizens were asked about their mobility preferences before, during and after the lockdown due to the virus. In turn, questions were asked about the preferred modes of transport in each of the situations and the perception of safety on public transport in their current conditions. The mobility questions were differentiated between commuting to work or studies, shopping and leisure. The results show that public transport was the most affected transport mode, with a considerable increase in the use of the bicycle and walking trips. At the same time, changes were observed in the behaviour of shopping trips, including a considerable decrease on the use of large supermarkets. Citizens perceived great uncertainty in planning leisure trips, the consequence of which could be that a higher proportion of people not being able to carry out their planned trips.